204) CONVERSATIONS WITH A SPANISH LIBERAL. 



the present instance, it will be urged, as there exists no similar pro- 

 vocation, it can only be therefore for the interest of religion, of the 

 priests, or of Don Carlos, that Merino has raised the standard of re- 

 volt. Such are the most general conclusions ; but they are absurd, 

 and betray the grossest ignorance of the man. Religion he has none. 

 In action his cry is never ' God and the church !' but ( to arms !' 

 After victory, never does he think of returning thanks to Heaven for 

 the advantage he has obtained. Religion has, therefore, no part in 

 his conduct, and the cause of the priests still less, for he cordially 

 abhors the whole race. In 1822, Merino was attacked by a fever, and 

 took refuge in the convent of Santa Clara. In this quiet retreat he 

 passed nearly a year ; and it proved for him the best asylum against 

 the active pursuit of which he was then the object. During the day 

 he assumed the habit of a nun, in order to walk with the sisterhood 

 in the garden ; and at night he slept in the church in a small recess 

 behind the statue of Santa Clara. Yet so much care and attention he 

 repaid by a series of gross insults and the blackest ingratitude. On 

 one occasion, in the refectory, the lady abbess having called him to 

 order, he actually seized a plate and broke it over her head. Since, 

 then, neither religion or its apostles have roused Merino to action, it 

 must be urged as the cause of Don Carlos. If ever this prince 

 ascends the throne of his brother, there can be no doubt that Merino 

 will have been powerfully instrumental to it ; but, nevertheless, it is 

 not for Don Carlos that this extraordinary man has taken up arms, 

 for he has already shewn that he has no sympathy for him. In 1827, 

 when the whole of Catalonia declared for that prince, and invited 

 several times Merino to declare for the same cause, his answer to 

 the whole was as follows : ' I am residing quietly at home, per- 

 fectly indifferent by whom the throne is filled, provided I am left 

 quiet. Be gone, and beware how you again appear before me ! ' 

 What, then, are Merino's real objects ? If we attentively examine 

 his whole life, and seek the secret of his atrocities, we shall find that 

 he has made a cause of his own, and that it is to this cause that he has 

 devoted his arm. He well knows that he has committed too many 

 crimes for any government to allow him to escape with impunity ; 

 it is, therefore, this instinct of self-preservation that governs and di- 

 rects every act of his life. If a republican government were esta- 

 blished in Spain to-morrow, and promised Merino a complete ob- 

 livion of the past, and were able to inspire him with confidence in 

 their promises, Merino would lay down his arms nay, even lend to 

 the reformers of monkish absolutism his powerful co-operation. 

 Merino is no party man; he is only terrible to those whom he 

 fears, or those who have injured him. Who these are we shall pre- 

 sently shew. But that he is not hostile to those who remain neutral, 

 whatever may be their political opinions, the following anecdote will 

 show. Merino's sister, whom we have mentioned fled from his per- 

 secution and cruelty, married a farmer at Villadoz. In the year 

 1823, when the army of the Duke d'Angouleme was master of Spain, 

 the husband of Merino's sister, Antonio Santuyo, accompanied by 

 Don Santiago Beltran, the only two royalists of Villahoz, assassinated 



